Kasparov – Karpov Valencia 2009, day 3 LIVE!

Sep 24, 2009

Kasparov wins blitz 6,0 – 2,0

For the whole week we followed all events from Kasparov – Karpov on Chessdom.com with minute by minute updates from the “Cuna del Ajedrez Moderno”. Today we will continue the coverage in a similar style, bringing news and details of the match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. The updates will appear in reverse chronological order, the earlier news will appear lower on the page.

The last game finishes draw, wrapping up the blitz score 6,0 – 2,0 and the total match score 9,0 – 3,0 for Kasparov.

22:00 CET

Game 7 goes to Kasparov again. Kasparov missed several strong moves leading to easier victory, and Karpov vigorously defended for 96 moves. In the end he could not hold and that is 5th game in a row for Kasparov.

21:30 CET

A win win black for Kasparov, making it 4th game in a row and 4,5-1,5 score in the blitz games.

21:15 CET

Kasparov wins 3rd game in a row and increases the total score to 6,5:1,5.

Game 4 goes to Kasparov (Karpov flagged and lost on time) and he once more increases the score. Game 5 to start after a short break.

19:55 CET

Kasparov strikes back in game 3 and wins with white. Karpov achieved slightly passive but solid position after the opening, but then the hasty c5 allowed Kasparov to combine the play against weak pawns d5 and g7 and encompass the light-squared Bishop. Game 4 is expected to start any moment.

The reported moves on game 2 are complete. Click on the “blitz game 2″ to replay it.

19:35 CET

In an variation of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, the players have cleared all the pawns from the queenside, and with imminent further pieces’ exchange, they have agreed to draw.

19:30 CET

At this moment we are trying to get in touch with our correspondent in the playing hall. Game 2 should be underway, but the official live transmission has failed. Soon we should have the moves and we will make them available.

Update: Game 2 is a draw, the two players shake hands, and the score after the first two blitz games is 2,5-3,5 for Kasparov.

In Queen Gambit Declined (Semi Slav without …Nf6) Karpov won after he maintained the advantage of 1 pawn for the game. The transmission failed around move 46, the score after game 1 is 2-3 for Kasparov.

Karpov improved on his play in rapid games by quickly exchanging the light-squared Bishops. Kasparov tried to gain initiative by sacrificing a pawn for open files, but Karpov neatly neutralized the pressure and converted the game into winning ending. We hear that White lost on time (to be confirmed).

18:55 CET

All pieces are set and the games will start in 5 minutes. Log on to the blitz game 1 page for the moves.

18:30 CET

The arbiters have still not set the clocks and they are showing 25 minutes for each player. The blitz games start in 30 minutes and the time control is 5 min + 2 sec.

18:00 CET

One hour to the start of the games in Valencia. The seminars on Artistic value of chess and Chess collectionism are going to be over soon and the audience will start filling the auditorium where the games will be played. Note that the blitz is today, but the closing ceremony is tomorrow.

17:25 CET

The two players have not used the most expected weapons in this match. Jason Juett opened the round 1 commentary saying, “For the opening, I’m predicting 1.d4 from Karpov so as to avoid dealing with the Sicilian that gave him so much trouble in the World Championship matches, and then what Kasparov will play is anybody’s guess. In the old days he would play a King’s Indian or Grunfeld, but in his last years of competitive chess he gave them up for more solid defences. I recall him playing the Queen’s Gambit Accepted a lot starting with the Kramnik match after his Grunfeld got beaten, but I cannot imagine such a solid and potentially boring choice being a good bet against Karpov.”

Goran Urosevic added, “We have seen that Kasparov is still swimming in Gruenfeld waters and it would be nice to see his second favourite weapon – King’s Indian Defence.”

What will be the opening choice in the blitz, we will learn in 1 hour and a half.

The blitz games are very exciting to be watched, yet with the current electronic chess board equipment many transmision errors are possible. We will be broadcasting all games here on Chessdom and if there are mistakes, we will try to bring the info from the playing hall.

At this moment the Chessdom IT team is preparing the broadcast, stay tuned for the exact urls of the games.

14:15 CET

Many chess fans keep on questioning Karpov’s physical preparation for the coming blitz games. A quick check shows that he played more than 30 blitz games in 2 days in Tal Memorial 07, and that he will play again the same amount at the coming World Blitz Championship.

13:45 CET

A strong round robin tournament begins today – Gyorgy Marx Memorial 2009. It includes the Asian Continental champion Ganguly, the Hungarian stars Almasi, Berkes and Acs, the German young talent Georg Meier, and the young Azeri GM Eltaj Safarli.

Parallel to that the Spice Cup is going on, with Hammer, Kuzubov, Andreikin top of the table with 3,0/5. In the Baku Open 2009 there are 13 players with full 3,0/3. Among them are not the top seeded Mamedyarov and Kamsky, who drew their round 3 games against international masters.

13:15 CET

The first day simul included 40 games, 20 for each player. Kasparov won all of them, Karpov was held to a draw by Irene Arques, a local 23 year old girl from Alicante (a city close to Valencia) from club d’escacs d’Alaquàs. Her rating is about 2000 ELO and she has only a few official FIDE rated games in the past years. A detailed video of the simul can be seen here.

12:30 CET

There are many interesting guests at the Kasparov – Karpov match in Valencia. Among them are a group of professional astronomers from Spain. Yesterday, they surprised Karpov with unexpected present – a poster with asteroid on it, more specifically the asteroid 90414 Karpov. It is named after Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov, initially discovered in 1993 the asteroid was given the name 2003 YP110 and later renamed to 90414 Karpov. The asteroid is located in the Main belt, the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.

12:00 CET

Kasparov repeated one more time that he is not a professional chess player anymore. However, he stated to be very irritated by the mistakes in the third game and he found it hard recovering.

11:35 CET

Karpov explained his absence during the first day’s press conference saying, “I let good positions slip away and I could not get it out of my mind.” He was also disappointed that he lost the 4th game on time, as he was looking for a way to reach a winning position in a game where he could secure a draw.

11:15 CET

The time control has played a major role in the competition so far. Karpov flagged all his games. Despite the fact that game 2 was totally lost and the others were in difficult postion, disturbed the chess fans.

Many experts have commented on the issue and the opinion that the age difference is stronger than ever is getting more and more followers. Today we will watch even shorter time control (5 min + 2 sec) and Karpov will be very determined to show that this is not true. Besides, this will be a good measure for him to see where he stands before his match with Anand, the World Blitz Chess Championship, and the second encounter with Kasparov in Paris in December.

11:00 CET

Both Kasparov and Karpov assured one more time that they “should not be judged by the quality of the rapid games”. Kasparov explained that his mind is adapted to slower time controls and just when a deeper idea comes, it is time to move.

Despite that, the two Ks qualified the games of yesterday as “good” and interesting, and were happy with the public interest and the behaviour of the audience.

10:35 CET

Kasparov said that he was surprised by Karpov’s strategy. He expected a more agressive approach by his opponent, having in mind the score and the style of Karpov in day 1.

10:30 CET

During day 2, the playing hall of Kasparov – Karpov had more people than the first day. About 350 chess fans, with tickets of close to 100 USD, were present at the room. Besides them, about a hundred journalists were distributed all around the playing hall, taking pictures and collecting material.

Karpov noted after the games, “I was very moved by the applauses after I won game 3, they returned the good feelings that I had lost in the disasterous day 1.”

10:15 CET

During today’s minute by minute coverage we will bring you all details from Valencia. Besides, many news will appear for ongoing competitions and events around the world. These competitions include the Spice Cup, Baku Open, Short – Efimenko match, the upcoming Nanjing 2009 tournament, the European Club Cup, and much more.

10:00 CET

Welcome to the day 3 coverage of Kasparov – Karpov match on Chessdom.com! With the score being 3-1 for Kasparov, today Karpov faces the challenge of comeback in 8 blitz games. It is hard to believe that Karpov can manage the time control, but let’s not forget that Kasparov regarded him as the best blitz player in the 80s and one of the best in chess history. Will Karpov make a comeback today? Will his seconds Bologan, Onischuk, and Riazantsev have prepared a surprise? Will Kasparov increase his advantage for an even more convincing victory? All questions will be answered today here live on Chessdom!